This invention relates, in general, to safety devices, and in particular, to devices which protect the eyesight and hearing of the user of the device from injury.
Often it is desired to protect the eyes, from flying debris, and to protect the hearing, from injury due to excessive noise. Well-known solutions to provide these protections are separate safety glasses and earplugs. Requiring separate devices for these protections creates some problems. Sometimes separate devices interfere with each other. The requirement of two separate devices requires the employee to keep track of two devices instead of one. Once the two devices are combined a problem arises in having sufficient adjustment in the single device so that the when the safety glasses are in place, the hearing protectors are lined up with the auditory canal of the ear.
Other solutions to this problem include providing safety glasses with earplugs attached in some manner. As an example, Leight, U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,925, provides a device whereby earplugs are connected to the temple bar of a pair of glasses. The problem with invention shown in the Leight patent is that the earplugs, and the section of the temple bar that bends around the ear would interfere with each other""s operation. If the earplugs were adjusted so that they were snug in the wearer""s ear, then most likely, the temple bar would be held out away from the head. If the temple bar is in contact with the head (especially the section that bends around the ear), then most likely, the earplugs will not be snugly fitting into the auditory canal of the wearer""s ear. Other problems with the device of the Leight patent is that the sliding blocks that provide connection of the ear plugs to the temple bar, are complex, requiring other tools for their adjustment. They are also bulky.
Another solution to the problem of having to use separate devices for hearing and sight protection, has been addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,272, of Aaron Lee Bright et al. This patent shows a device that includes glasses and hearing protection. The device shows a hearing protection assembly that slips into the sleeve of the temple part. The temple part contains a pin that is inserted into holes in the leg of the hearing protection assembly. This is what holds the hearing protection assembly to the glasses. A problem with this invention is that the solution of vertical adjustment is accomplished through a complex and costly design process of including a wire into the molded S shaped part of the hearing protection assembly. Furthermore, with this device it would be difficult to maintain sufficient pressure on the earplugs, thereby providing less than optimum hearing protection.
The present invention is an eye and hearing protection device. As such it comprises a pair of safety glasses, combined to a hearing protection device for each ear, and includes means for sufficient adjustment so as to be useable by most people, and also includes means to hold that adjustment once made.
Several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide for the protection of both eyes and hearing for the user of the invention;
(b) to provide for sufficient adjustability so that both the safety glasses and the hearing protection devices can be positioned to be effective and comfortable;
(c) to provide means to hold sufficiently securely the conformation of the invention once the protection devices have been adjusted in relation to each other;
(d) to provide a means so that a neck strap can be usefully attached to the present invention;
(e) to make easier for a worker to retain and use the protection of both hearing and eyesight protection;
(f) to provide clearance from the ear so that a pencil can be held between the ear and the head of a worker;
(g) to provide a device that requires a worker to use hearing protection if he is to using the eyesight protection.
Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description and drawings.